Hello, so recently I went through possibly the worst experience of my life (still in the hospital with the autoimmune disease I contracted) and long story short I don’t want to just “try to make a lot of money and cool stuff” as a CSE Major (Computer Science And Engineering) at UC Davis or UCLA (the two schools I planned on applying to in two or so years after I finish up at Foothill Community College). It broke my heart and brought me to tears seeing so many people suffering that I couldn’t help, even worse the fact that if it was this bad at one of the best hospitals in the country it’s even worse everywhere else. I vowed if I got out I would go to medical school so I can make an actual difference in peoples’ lives; switching majors if I have to and getting into the best medical school I can.
So my question is, should I switch majors to a traditional pre-med major like Biology or keep mine what it is? My major is very non-traditional for a pre-med student but I feel this also would allow me to possibly make breakthroughs in the industry others haven’t due to the lack of the major. It’s also worth mentioning I’m currently minoring in Economics which could act as a possible path into politics to work on fixing the healthcare system or using my minor to figure out how to make things more affordable for the average American. Regardless, thank you for your opinions!
If you have the GPA in your current major and can maintain it, there is no reason to change majors – but you do need to take the pre-med requirements.
But… having worked in various sides of healthcare over the years, it is pretty presumptuous to think that the right majors/thinking just haven’t been applied to our current system, and that is the cause of the current state. There are many powerful historical, economic, and political forces at work. You will come across as hopelessly naive if you march through your application process telling everyone that you will be the savior because you understand things no one else does. Or even thinking that to yourself.
Sorry I know it could very well mean nothing, I just was having the thought that rare majors could add something to the field. Like how doctors spend so much of their time doing paperwork, a doctor working at the hospital with for example a CS major could try to to use their coding knowledge to program and make data viewing much more efficient, whereas without programming knowledge that wouldn’t really be possible.
Both my daughters had “non-traditional” majors for med school (mathematics, physics) and any number of their classmates have “non-traditional” majors (music performance, economics, business, theology, agriculture/forestry, electrical engineering, computer science, Latin American studies, English literature). You, as a CS major, certainly won’t be a rare or unusual candidate for med school. Less common than a bio major, yes, but not exceptionally unusual or rare. I would say it’s awfully presumptuous of you to assume that you’re going to revolutionize healthcare simply because you’re a CS major.
Besides, it would be a huge waste of time for a physician to write code to make data viewing more efficient or streamline paperwork–per your examples. (That’s what software developers and systems engineers are for.) It takes years and years of highly specialized training to become a physician so to have someone do all that training then use it for something you can hire a contractor to do just doesn’t make any kind of economic sense.
And while it’s admirable that you want to help others, there are any number of ways you can do that–most of which do not involve going to medical school. (Hey, become that software engineer that fixes the EMR system.)
Make sure that medicine is what you really want to do–and not merely something you feel drawn to out of gratitude for your own recovery. Spend time shadowing doctors to see what they really do and what their life is like, and get your hands dirty by volunteering in a clinical setting–like a nursing home, hospice or a group home for the mentally or physically disabled. If, after you’ve done that, and medicine still draws you–then you know that medicine is your calling and you need to pursue it.
As a retired IT manager/consultant, I can tell you that you can have only one career choice at any given period of your life, especially between CS and Medicine. It takes about 10 years post graduate to train an useful physician and it certainly will take up all your awaken time concentration on medicine. Your CS skills learned at UG will be totally useless by the time you completed your physician training, just like that I could not ever get back into the rat race after I left the IT field.
“an make an actual difference in peoples’ lives” - Every working person, no matter what the position / career is “making an actual difference in peoples’ lives”. I just wanted to clarify that. I am as IT professional making a huge difference in people’s lives and I am at the place where I belong. So, this is the most important question that only you can answer and nobody can do it for you. Where do you see yourself belong?
Another consideration is that to be able to finally add MD at the end of your name, you got to endure very long and torturous road. You will be pushed to your absolute extreme in all aspects of you as a human being, mental, intellectual, emotional, physical, social, financial…I am sure, I missed something. Are you ready for that at the level unimaginable to you now?
Many HS kids who had some hopes for career in medicine, did a lot in HS to make sure that they at least feel somewhat comfortable in various medically related settings. They volunteered, shadowed physicians, interned / worked in Medical Research labs…Have you done any of these in your life?
To answer directly. You can have any combination of major(s) / minor(s) if planning to apply to medical school. Medical schools do not care. You have to take all pre-reqs that are required by Medical schools, no matter what is your major. Many students around my pre-med D. including her had combo of major(s) / minor(s) primarily to pursue theirr personal interests. My own D. had Zoology major/Neuroscience minor / Music composition minor, her one friend had Zoology major/Art minor and another friend graduated with triple major Zoology/Spanish/Latin Studies. I personally know people with Latin major and those who attended at Conservatory of Music who ended up going to Medical school. Few here, on CC, had an engineering major, which is the most challenging of them all, so one needs to be absolutely sure that they can maintain very high college GPA required by Medical school.
In other words, your major is not important. What is? Your college GPA needs to be 3.6+ as a min, you need to take all pre-reqs required by medical school, you need a decent MCAT score, you have to participate in medical ECs, like volunteering, shadowing, interning at medical research lab, you should develop as a person, so do not be a hermit studying in your room most of the time.
You can get the first degree and go for a post-bacc, which catches you up for med school. And these programs are respected.
The problem is the savior thing intparent alludes to. You or someone in your family gets sick and suddenly a kid gets a 2+2 mentality: I feel the pain and want to solve it. By gummy, I’ll be a doc. Or a researcher. Or I’ll be a biomech engineer and invent prosthetic limbs (as if no one ever thought of that before.) Or a senator creating health reform. Or king.
Get the experience WOWMom and MiamiDAP refer to. If you were in a tough ward at a major facility for tough medical cases, you have only one view. Go vol in various real life settings, help, not just observe, learn how incremental the practice of medicine (or research science or politics) really is. Learn how various job types make a difference. Lean about your own real strengths, so you can shape your dreams.
Sorry if that’s harsh, but I see so many kids who want to be docs and have a narrow view of what it entails.